Two years after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service removed three aging dams from the West Fork River, the river is so much cleaner that:

The City of Clarksburg is spending $60,000 a year less for chemicals to make the water safe to drink.

It’s possible to paddle or float more than 50 miles from the Weston Dam to the Heartland Dam in Clarksburg.

The 111-year-old Highland Dam, the 105-year-old Two Lick Dam and the 94-year-old West Milford Dam had been part of the city’s water intake system.

A push to remove the dams began after the deaths of three people at the Highland Dam caused the City of Clarksburg’s insurer to settle financially with the families of the victims.

A proposed 75-mile West Fork River Water Trail will pass through three North Central West Virginia counties and eight municipalities, including Monongah and Worthington, from Stonewall Jackson Dam to Fairmont, where the West Fork meets the Tygart and the Monongalia rivers.

The West Fork runs under the Father Everett Briggs bridge that connects West Monongah with East Monongah. Eventually, its waters wind up in the Ohio River, which blends into into the Mississippi River for a journey to New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico.